


Summer at Ealdor

by arthur_pendragon



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arthur Dirtying His Hands With Bucolic Work, Canon Era, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-25 00:59:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16186790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arthur_pendragon/pseuds/arthur_pendragon
Summary: Arthur is in Ealdor to impress the villagers and filch Merlin from his mum.





	Summer at Ealdor

**Author's Note:**

> It was an honour to be able to contribute to COiNELOT 2018! Please enjoy the ficlet :)  
>  ~~can we pretend Will’s dad is alive in this one? Thank you~~

“Aren’t you going to help?”  Arthur asked,  bent under the weight of the hay strapped to his back. The sun was  quite harsh that  day, beating down on Ealdor like an inferno;  Arthur suspected the back of his neck would be pink and sensitive by the evening.

Merlin yawned at him. He’d been snoring in the shade of a big elm tree behind his cottage for about an hour now and got up, but only to pet the stray goat which’d wandered over to him. “Just pretend I’m not here,” he called back.

“I’ve been wanting to do that ever since you came to Camelot,” Arthur muttered.

“I heard that!” Merlin lied. 

Arthur gave him up as a lost cause and turned to convey the hay to Will’s father in the  stables, at the far end of the _long_ row of cottages because nothing was ever easy for Arthur these days.  Thinking it unfair that he, the  _King_ , was sweating like a commoner to please the residents of a village he’d barely just begun to own, Arthur unloaded his burden into an empty stall. He fetched hay from the fields thrice more before Will’s father finally let him go, rewarding him with a grateful grin and a clap on the back that Uther would never even have attempted.

No one else seemed to have anything left for Arthur to do except stand around and be regally handsome, so he decided to chat for a bit with Hunith. This, of course, meant Merlin promptly joined him at the door.

“Visiting my mum?”

“Haven’t seen her for ages.” 

“Since this morning.”

“Why’s it bothering you?” 

“It isn’t bothering me,” Merlin said, swaying back and forth on the doorstep anxiously. 

Arthur took pity on him. “I’ll have you know the wooing’s going extremely well. You’ll be returning to Camelot as Queen in no time.”

That paused Merlin in his undulation. “ _Queen_?” he said incredulously as Arthur knocked on the door , hiding a grin. “Oh gods,  I hope  Mum and  all the  rest of them decide I’m too good for you.”

The blush on his face gave him away,  however,  and Arthur was just about to helplessly lean in  to kiss him when  Hunith opened the  door, beaming at them both.


End file.
